that obama was so popular because he convinced people that he was going to change washington and he was going to end the partisanship. cantor realized that by denying that to obama, he could hurt him. >> narrator: cantor had rallied house republicans to oppose president obama's first major piece of legislation: the stimulus package. >> eric cantor sent out an email. said not that "i'm voting against it." eric cantor's email is: "we're against this." >> their leadership told the members we're not for any of it. no matter what it is-- "no, just say no." on this vote, the yeas are... >> narrator: the final stimulus bill passed the house without a single republican vote. >> the conference report is adopted. >> it was cantor who engineered that unanimous no vote. and seeing they could all hold together on this gave them a lot of confidence and a lot of comfort. >> narrator: it was a strategy that cantor had used again and again during the first two years of obama's presidency. and at the baltimore retreat, cantor promised the new republicans he would continue to play hardball with the wh